Every year a group of strong, energetic, fun-loving women head for Wild Coast beaches in the joyful Wild Women on the Run adventure run and this year they have made a calendar to capture the run’s sense of freedom.
“We wanted the calendar to have the look and feel of strength, unity, fun and friendship,” said artist Kerry-Lyn Honey, who coordinated the photoshoots and oversaw the calendar’s creative design at her Hartspace studio in Vincent.
Themed “strength, fitness and nature”, the calendar, which was photographed by professional photographer Anine Koch, will be launched next Friday with proceeds going to the African Angels Independent School in Chintsa East and Busfare Babies Birth Centre in Hamburg.
In order to participate in the run, women must raise a minimum donation towards these initiatives, both of which uplift women and children.
Honey, who has two Wild Women runs under her belt, said the photographs were taken during four high-spirited photoshoots over two months on Kwelera Beach and on farmland at Whats Landing, also in Kwelera.
“The photos show how we feel on the run – free and supportive of each other with no judging of our individual body shapes or sizes.
“Anine was initially quite reserved and when I said ‘let’s take our tops off’ her eyes widened, but by the end she came right out of her shell.
“She was amazing.”
Some photographs show the women topless from the back, stirring up the waters of the Kwelera River in wild abandon, or leaping off a pier, one shows them taking a break on a log laughing uproariously and another shows them looking out to sea with linked hands, encapsulating the intense bonding that takes place during the rigours of the 90km run.
“One was taken with women bundled up in raincoats because last year we got caught in a hailstorm with lightning striking so often that we spread out just in case we were all struck at once! Some photos also show stillness because sometimes there are moments when we are alone on the run and that is when questions we are grappling with are answered.”
Inspirational quotes supplied by the runners weave across the evocative photographs and some photos include exuberant little girls from African Angels School – possible future participants of Wild Women on the Run.
lThe calendar, which is not time bound, but can be used to note celebratory annual occasions, will cost R150. It will be launched at Floradale Country Bumpkin on Friday August 4 at 6pm, and everyone is welcome. See the Hartspace Facebook page for more information. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
